Arthur Fils Discusses Experience of Working With Goran Ivanisevic so far: “He has Tons of Advice”

Arthur Fils is back on the court at the Barcelona Open after surprisingly skipping the Monte Carlo Masters. The Frenchman has shown on the court this season that he’s still one of the best youngsters in the men’s circuit. But that can be attributed to his partnership with Novak Djokovic’s ex-coach Goran Ivanisevic.

Fils appointed Ivanisevic in February, ahead of the Qatar Open. Their first tournament was in Doha, where the Frenchman played with high intensity and reached the final but lost to Carlos Alcaraz. He returned to the court at Indian Wells, where he earned his first top 10 win of the season.

He defeated ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the round of 16 and then reached the quarter-finals. However, he couldn’t get past Alexander Zverev in the last eight. He continued with the form at the Miami Open, where he looked likely to reach the final of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament after beating Tommy Paul.

Again, the Frenchman didn’t live up to expectations in the semi-finals, losing to Jiri Lehecka in straight sets. This means that since his partnership with Ivanisevic, he has reached at least the quarter-finals of every tournament he has played, which is a brilliant achievement for a player who struggled with injury for six months.

Back on tour and ready for the Barcelona Open, Fils is looking to continue with his brilliant performance. During his press conference at the ATP 500 tournament, the World No.28 admitted that Ivanisevic is fun to work with and that he has gotten special advice from him that has helped him on the court:

He’s a lot of fun to work with. He has tons of advice to give me, but always in a good, positive, and fun way. Today was funny, for example. I missed a drop shot and he said, ‘The problem isn’t that you missed it, it’s how bad the drop shot was.’ So we laughed about the mistake and didn’t complain. It’s quite nice working like that.

Ivanisevic struggled to find a long-term client last year. He worked with Elena Rybakina for less than 2 months before they parted ways. The Croatian coach then partnered with Stefanos Tsitsipas for less than a month. His relationship with Tsitsipas ended badly as both parties complained about each other to the press.

Arthur Fils reveals why he decided to skip the Monte Carlo Masters

Arthur Fils was one of the standout players in the first half of the 2025 season before sustaining a back injury. He reached the quarter-finals of three ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, including the Monte Carlo Masters for the first time in his career. He also got to the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open before losing to Carlos Alcaraz.

Despite kicking off his 2026 season in February, Fils has racked up more wins than Stefanos Tsitsipas and several top players, who are currently struggling on tour. During the aforementioned press conference, he revealed why he withdrew from the Monte Carlo Masters last week, despite reaching the quarter-finals last year:

I only had two or three days to get ready for Monte-Carlo—there was no real chance to be competitive. Especially since I had to go to Munich to see a doctor and confirm everything was okay, then return. So we figured it was better to take some time, do a week or 10 days of intensive training, then be ready to compete here. I saw the doctor and everything checks out.

Fils will kick off his campaign in Barcelona against Terence Atmane in the second round after Brandon Nakashima pulled out. He’s in the same half of the draw as Alcaraz, and he’s expected to face the Spaniard in the later stages of the tournament.

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